The (De)Colonial Struggle

DEVS 364/3.0

Old globe in front of a bookshelf

Overview

Topics

  • Weeks 1-2: Towards ‘Defining’ Colonialism, Settler Colonialism and Decolonizatio
  • Weeks 3-4: Water is Life  
  • Weeks 5-6: Land is Everything
  • Weeks 7-8: Identity, Kin, and Community
  • Weeks 9-10: Womxn, Sexuality, and 2SLGBTQA+
  • Weeks 11-12: Indigenous Art and Decolonization

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this course, the student will have reliably demonstrated the ability to:  

  1. Describe how settler colonial realities shape current relations between the State and Indigenous Peoples and the role of decolonization in redefining these relations;  

  1. Critically reflect on positionality and its alignment with one’s roles and responsibilities in the struggle to decolonize;    

  1. Examine how colonization has shaped the histories and ongoing lived realities of specific groups of individuals including Indigenous women and 2SLGTBQA+ Peoples;  

  1. Analyze how colonial ideology constructs the land and water, and how decolonial theories/practices aim to restore and privilege Indigenous concepts and relationships with the physical world and prioritize land and water as fundamental to all issues, personal histories, and ontologies;   

  1. Examine how Indigenous and settler peoples work collaboratively to resist settler colonialism to move beyond it towards a different reality that centers balanced, respectful, and healthy ways of being; and   

  1. Discuss how Indigenous art intersects with Indigenous research and activism in ways that support Indigenous agency.